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Live at the Bassline, Johannesburg

by Colin Vearncombe

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1.
Alive 03:47
Listen to the silence growing louder A whisper can sometimes be louder than a scream Even in your wildest dreams Oh growing louder But I am Never more alive than when I am Lying in your arms again Some say that each and everyone of us is dying They don’t admit that they have never really Lived at all And swung it at the big ball Oh I don’t fight it ‘cause I am never more alive than when I am lying in your arms again Some people act like love was just a kind of guessing game So when they want you what the hell are they responding to? And some people act like they’re immaturing I don’t know if I am growing younger But I am never more alive than when I am lying in your arms again
2.
You’re a big girl now With a big girl’s needs And a big girl’s dreams and promises Why don’t you accept yourself? Accept your desires Meet your needs Deny your problems And don’t cry, cry, don’t cry you’re a big girl now It’s so hard to be humble When you know you’re worth more To live and learn Is all we can hope for An attraction of pasts Like the blindness of the summer sun But what will you do On when the rain comes through? And don’t cry, cry, don’t cry you’re a big girl now
3.
You don’t believe me, I can tell it by your eyes There’s a kind of magic, to be had from your lies I used to say that today Is like tomorrow Don’t sell it short for truth I should have known should have known should have known how I should have known I should have known by now You don’t understand it, I can tell it by your smile There’s a kind of freedom, to be had from your lies I always said that today Is like tomorrow Don’t sell it short for truth I should have known should have known should have known now I should have known I should have known by now But everything’s coming up roses, coming up roses, coming up roses But now everything’s coming up roses, coming up roses
4.
Everything changes when you think about it There’s not much you can do about it But another broken Irish sat on a park bench Feels his life like a gut wrench Like it’s passing him by So I feel like change I feel like walking out and standing in the rain I feel like change, feel like change Everything changes as you stare at it We’ve all learned to live with it But another bag-lady, beggar man, thief Another low-flyer came to grief Can barely stand So I feel like change I feel like walking out and standing in the rain I feel like change, feel like change I never wanted to write this song It won’t help what’s going on When we look at what’s going on Two rights could make a wrong This is such a pointless fight Two songs won’t make it right Three songs won’t make it right Maybe a hundred songs might make it right
5.
There’ve been too many times When I never said what was on my mind How was I to know you’d go so soon? Your God will come to take you home Leaving me stumbling over These stupid lines on a shabby page Daddy, sometimes I’m filled with rage – I lost the only thing that was really mine So Daddy, can you hear me? Oh Daddy, do I still make you laugh? And I know just what you’d say Is this really the time and place? To say all of those things that we never said There’ve been too many times When my head was filled with stupid pride I hope you’re laughing now that all these words have been set aside Oh Daddy, can you hear me? Oh Daddy, do I still make you laugh? And I know just what you’d say Is this really the time and place? To say all of those things that we never said It seems so long since I saw you Yet it seems like yesterday There’s no need to make amends for I look on us as friends Oh Daddy can you hear me? Oh daddy do I still make you laugh?
6.
Leaving Song 04:11
Hand me my five and dime Pass me my shirt hung on the line I’ll polish up my boots and then take the first plane stateside I can find It’s a handicap to try to see this far When this place seems so cramped and small In these streets they whisper legends And it seems that I’m riding for a fall I’m leaving, I’m leaving All of my sense is shot The streets are like a premonition of a crime I wrote without you and I took the first plane stateside I could find If they could they would have stopped me They’d say I’m gaping at a dream I’m leaving, I’m leaving So I polish up my brand new car Then take my tunes from door to door I try not to see their faces as I’m dealing out my aces The horizon seems so far away From a penthouse for a king and queen I expected more of the stuff of dreams If they can they like to get their man and cut him right down to his knees And I’m leaving, once again I’m leaving I’m leaving, once again I’m leaving I’m reeling, and once again I’m leaving
7.
Lately we’ve been acting like strangers We never show our feelings Or say the things we mean It’s hard to admit But maybe it’s time to quit pretending cause we both know it’s better letting go there’s no point hanging on to what used to be why can’t we see it’s better letting go It’s crazy to sit here in silence Counting off the seconds The beating of our hearts When there’s no more to give There’s no easy way to live together We both know It’s better letting go It’s time to walk away And start again This makes no sense It’s better letting go No matter how we fake it This love has faded The feeling has gone It’s time to move on It’s no good looking back It hurts but we both know it baby It’s better letting go There’s no point hanging on To what used to be Why can’t we see It’s better letting go It’s better letting go It’s time to walk away And start again This makes no sense It’s better letting go
8.
All the way from America holding out your hand You pinned your colours to the mast Pinned them high up in the sky Look what you do to me My hands keep thumping waltz in triple time So she wrote All the way from America Arriving just as planned passing through the blocks and alleyways The avenues I’m crying Look what you do to me Look what your tender hands have done this time And I say Don’t take the silence too hard Don’t take the silence too hard Your absence lasts through every passing year Don’t take the silence too hard All the way from America Straining with my eyes to see the hours stretched out before me As I cross the ocean line Look what you do for me My hands are ruby warm and I feel fine And I sail To the home of erotica Pictured on the stand kneel down and pray you take no burdens Out of the Promised Land Into the mystery Your eyes are full of tales of idle hands She says Don’t take the silence too hard Don’t take the silence too hard Your absence lasts through every passing year Don’t take the silence too hard All the way from America Holding out your hand You pinned your colours to the mast Pinned them high up in the sky Look what you do to me My hands keep thumping waltz in triple time Don’t take the silence too hard Don’t take the silence too hard Don’t take the silence too hard Don’t take the silence too hard
9.
Here I go out to sea again The sunshine fills my hair And dreams hang in the air Gulls in the sky and in my blue eyes You know it feels unfair There’s magic everywhere Look at me standing Here on my own again Up straight in the sunshine No need to run and hide It’s a wonderful, wonderful life No need to laugh or cry It’s a wonderful, wonderful life The sun’s in your eyes The heat is in your hair They seem to hate you Because you’re there And I need a friend, oh I need a friend To make me happy Not stand there on my own Look at me standing here on my own again Up straight in the sunshine No need to run and hide It’s a wonderful, wonderful life No need to laugh or cry It’s a wonderful, wonderful life I need a friend, oh I need a friend To make me happy, not so alone Look at me here, here on my own again Up straight in the sunshine No need to run and hide It’s a wonderful, wonderful life No need to laugh or cry It’s a wonderful, wonderful life
10.
I can laugh about it now, but couldn’t then You made me ache, so I went for a run In the driving rain Through your neighbourhood streets And there you were, a silhouette in the wet night air Me in my pumps in the pouring rain A kind of despair upon finding you there Couldn’t whisper your name Oh, I can laugh about it now by your side Oh, I can laugh about it now by your side Oh, sha la la la, we’re all in trouble Is there room in the sky for all of us angels here? And the very next day, through the shrieks of the crowd Came your careless self, your oh-so-couldn’t careless self And you just pass me by, your friends catch my eyes “We know you love her, we saw you dancing with her shadow” And I couldn’t disagree, and for the life of me I could call out your name, and call out your name, And call out your name Oh, I can laugh about it now by your side Oh, I can laugh about it now by your side Oh, sha la la la, we’re all in trouble Is there room in the sky for all of us angels here? Sha la la la, oh, we’re all in trouble, Or is there room in the sky for all of us angels here? I can laugh about it now I can laugh about it now by your side Oh, sha la la la, we’re all in trouble Or is there room in the sky for all of us angels here?
11.
I think my heart must be made of clay Cause everyone said it would be broken some day And now I’ve come to that fateful day So I sit on the floor with my head in my hands And don’t tell me how to make it pay I write a new song every day I just wish I was made of wood I might not feel pain even if I should Even if I should The sweetest smile that ever did Melt the pats in the butter dish And if you could have believed in me I swear to God I’d have made damn sure Our hearts were warm, and glad with wine I’d keep the doors locked all the time I just wish I was made of wood You might not seem glad, even if you should Even if you should, if you should I think my heart must be made of clay Cause everyone said it would be broken some day Seems that I have come to that fateful day So I sit on the floor with my head in my hands With my head in my hands Even if I should, if I should
12.
Gonna fly up to the moon Raising all of my money Can’t make it too soon I am sick of it down here Gonna fly up to the moon So this is how the world ends Not with a bang but with a Wimpy Don’t laugh too soon, I am sick of it down here Gonna fly up to the moon Who needs all the troubles of today, what’s the difference anyway? I feel out of focus but what can I do there’s only you? Gonna fly up to the moon Raising all of my money, can’t make it too soon I am sick of it down here Gonna fly up to the moon When they open the borders where will you be? I’ll climb the highest tree to avoid the stampede And if I should fly there’s only you You There’s only you that would say Goodbye

about

In September 2001, Colin played three nights at the Bassline in Johannesburg, accompanied by Concord Nkabinde on bass and vocals, Barry van Zyl on drums and Lady Black on additional vocals.

This CD captures Colin’s new acoustic concert sound, placing classic early album tracks like ‘Everything is coming up roses’ and ‘You’re a big girl now’ against more recent releases ‘Better letting go’ and ‘Alive’.

It captures the spirit of the concerts, with an enthusiastic audience cheering the songs as they get going and ‘Sweetest Smile’ finishing in a thrashy acoustic guitar solo with Colin yelping over the top. Is Colin having fun yet? It sounds like it.

Recorded at The Bassline, Johannesburg, South Africa on the 23rd September 2001

credits

released November 23, 2001

Produced and mixed by Martin Green and Colin Vearncombe
Mastered by Martin Giles at Alchemy

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about

Black

Colin Vearncombe, otherwise known as Black, was born in Liverpool on 26 May 1962.

He had three top- ten records across Europe and sold over two million albums before leaving the mainstream and going independent. He released a string of albums as Black and under his own name on his own label; Nero Schwarz.

He died in a motor accident in January 2016. His legacy lives on in the Love, Colin project.
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